Oakland Mayor Jean Quan (left) forced City Administrator Deanna Santana out early, but now apparently wants her back as a paid consultant.

Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan (left) forced City Administrator Deanna...

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Former San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew leaves a sentencing hearing at a federal courthouse in San Francisco, Friday, April 3, 2009. Jew has been sentenced to five years and four months in prison for attempting to shake down small city businesses having planning permit problems. He was ensnared in a 2007 FBI sting that videotaped Jew receiving $40,000 in marked bills from an owner of a Quickly fast-food restaurant. He later pleaded guilty to one count each of bribery, extortion and fraud and admitted he tried to force several Quickly owners to pay him a combined $80,000. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

There's more palace intrigue over at Oakland City Hall, with the possibility that former City Administrator Deanna Santana - shoved out the door by Mayor Jean Quanlast week - could be coming back as a paid consultant.

An unhappy Santana had been eyeing jobs in other cities for several months, and she was already planning her exit from City Hall. It was supposed to be a smooth transition, with Santana gradually handing control to her successor, Fred Blackwell, over the next six weeks or so.

Someone tipped Chronicle columnist Chip Johnsonearly, however, and he posted a column online Monday, two days before the planned announcement. That prompted Quan to declare right then and there that Santana was out, in a spin-fest designed to show that the mayor is the one in charge.

Things got really ugly in the ensuing hours when, as part of the severance talks, City Attorney Barbara Parker asked Santana to sign 22 pages of documents that included a clause barring her from saying anything negative publicly about her three years at City Hall. And Parker wanted them signed that afternoon.

But no hard feelings, apparently. The mayor's office contacted Santana later Monday night and asked if she would consider coming back as a paid consultant.

"And I still might, but I don't want any contact with Mayor Quan," Santana said.

Quan and Parker did not return calls seeking comment.

Oddly enough, even after this very public train wreck, Santana remains level-headed.

"This is Oakland," she said. "I was prepared going in and I'm prepared going out."

Ins and outs: Former San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew is back home with his family after serving most of a five-year federal prison sentence for extortion and bribery - but now he's fighting to avoid another one-year term in County Jail from a perjury conviction.

Jew pleaded guilty in 2008 to federal charges of shaking down the immigrant owners of tapioca drink stores in his district for $84,000 in bribes, and soon after to state charges of lying about his residence when he ran for the Board of Supervisors in 2006.

The federal conviction landed Jew 4 1/2 years at prison camps in Arizona and California, where his attorney Stuart Hanlonsaid he had an exemplary record tutoring, teaching yoga and building wheelchairs for poor children.

Jew arrived home a few days ago. Now, San Francisco prosecutors want him to serve his year for perjury, and Hanlon is fighting to block it.

In papers filed in San Francisco Superior Court last week, Hanlon argued that Jew has already paid his dues. He added that his client's health is not good, and that Jew came down with tuberculosis and valley fever while in federal lockup.

What's more, Hanlon said, after the feds realized they had mistakenly sent Jew to a halfway house for the last six months of his sentence - which wasn't permitted because of his state conviction - they shipped him to L.A.'s Metropolitan Detention Center. The downtown jail is "almost a 24/7 lockdown facility," the lawyer said.

In other words, Hanlon argued, "the extra punishment for his state conviction ... has already occurred."

Hazardous duty: San Francisco firefighters at Station 48 on Treasure Island were forced to close up shop Friday after tests found evidence of black mold in their former Navy building.

The nine firefighters were immediately moved three blocks away to a Fire Department training facility, where they're expected to remain indefinitely while Station 48 is cleaned up.

"Whatever it is, it's a health hazard," said Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge. "But we haven't had any reports of any illnesses related to that at all."

We're told firefighters have been complaining for years about problems ranging from mold and leaky roofs to collapsed floors and broken windows at stations all over town.

City Hall "made the decision to focus on delivering services instead of taking care of the infrastructure when money was tight" after the economic crash of 2008, said firefighters union President Tom O'Connor. "Now, unfortunately, those bills are coming due."

Incidentally, mold isn't the only thing they're checking at Station 48. They'll soon be testing for radiation as well, in the wake of revelations that radioactive items are still being found on the former military base.